Visitbritain’s Business Events team has published a delegation spending report 2024, revealing that representative spending has increased by 75% since 2017.
Seven years after the previous report, the updated findings provide valuable insight into growth trends in spending patterns, travel expansion, travel preferences, return intent, and host destination sustainability awareness across different types of business events.
Delegated expenditures increased
One of the key findings in the new report reveals a significant increase in average delegation spending for business events in the UK. It is mainly driven by international representatives staying longer, with an increase in overnight stays and year-over-year increases.
Total travel expenditure per representative has risen since 2017 to £629 from £359 in 2024 (excluding registration fees).
International Representative
Other important findings show that international representatives have a much higher average spend per national equivalent representative due to their length of stay, with average spending at £1,824 for non-European visitors, compared to £872 for Europeans and £328 for UK participants.
Looking at the differences in event types, the average travel for association events (£854) is significantly higher than corporate events (£651), both types are higher than exhibitions (£326), and incentive travel costs in the UK average £2,113 per delegate.
Extended stays increase visitors’ spending by 150%
Of those who extend their trips for leisure, their average spend is £1,760. Without the extension, the same representative would have spent an average of £714.
Business events promote repeat visits, data shows
62% of event representatives said they “definitely” wanted to return to the city/region for leisure, 60% said “definitely” to attend another business event, and 47% said “definitely” to invest or grow business relationships
Main motivations (53%) and career development (33%) to participate in Eventis Networking/Collaboration (64%) continue.
These findings highlight the high value of securing business events and hosting, promotional opportunities to encourage repeat visitors, especially when assessing delegation spending, and encourage extended stays, especially for international representatives.
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